WASHINGTON — After steering Sea Launch into the hands of a new owner, chief executive Sergey Gugkaev will leave the company to look for a new role elsewhere in the space industry. Gugkaev has been CEO of Sea Launch since 2012, and oversaw the company’s attempt to reestablish itself after emerging from bankruptcy only two years earlier. Switzerland-based Sea Launch struggled to regain traction in the commercial market despite launching five times in 14 months between late 2011 and December 2012. A 2013 failure that destroyed a $400 million Intelsat…

Reagan promised that the station would bring “quantum leaps in our research in science, communications, and in metals and lifesaving medicines.” It was also supposed to foster collaboration with Europe, Canada, and Japan while preserving America’s preeminence in space. Then came the harsh realities of translating Reagan’s vision into hardware. Freedom’s cost was initially estimated at $8 billion. That number quickly doubled, leading to a series of painful design compromises that still failed to stop the budget bloat. The station might not have been built at all were it not…

Reagan promised that the station would bring “quantum leaps in our research in science, communications, and in metals and lifesaving medicines.” It was also supposed to foster collaboration with Europe, Canada, and Japan while preserving America’s preeminence in space. Then came the harsh realities of translating Reagan’s vision into hardware. Freedom’s cost was initially estimated at $8 billion. That number quickly doubled, leading to a series of painful design compromises that still failed to stop the budget bloat. The station might not have been built at all were it not…

WASHINGTON — NASA is beginning to study a contingency option for maintaining access to the International Space Station should commercial crew vehicle development experience delays, one that would turn test flights of those vehicles into operational missions. Speaking at the Federal Aviation Administration Commercial Space Transportation Conference here Feb. 8, Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations, said using the planned crewed test flights as crew rotation missions was one option under consideration should neither Boeing nor SpaceX be certified for regular crew rotation missions by the…

Tourists could potentially venture out of the ISS and carry out their very own spacewalk. But would-be astronauts will need deep pockets as well as a head for heights as the dream voyage carries an astronomical £70 million price-tag. Vladimir Solntsev, the head of Russian space company Energia, said: “We are discussing the possibility of sending tourists on spacewalks. “Market analysts have confirmed this: wealthy people are ready to pay money for this.” He said the cost of such a trip could be around £70 million, but “possibly less for…

WASHINGTON — As the two companies developing commercial crew systems reiterated that they were on schedule to carry out test flights later this year, a government analysis of schedules concluded those vehicles may not be certified to carry NASA astronauts until late 2019 or early 2020. That assessment, delivered by the Government Accountability Office at a Jan. 17 hearing by the House space subcommittee on the commercial crew program, raises the potential of a gap in U.S. access to the International Space Station when the agency’s current agreements for Soyuz…

WASHINGTON — SpaceX has delayed its two commercial crew test flights by four months, according to a new NASA schedule released Jan. 11, raising questions about whether it or Boeing will be able to send astronauts to the International Space Station by the end of the year as previously planned. The updated schedule, which NASA said represents “the most recent publicly releasable dates” for the two companies, lists an uncrewed test flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft in August 2018, followed by a crewed test flight in December. The previous…

GLASSBORO, New Jersey — Angola’s new satellite is communicating normally with ground teams again after losing contact shortly following launch. Moscow-based Energia, manufacturer of Angosat-1, as well as the Russian state corporation Roscosmos confirmed in press releases Dec. 29 that the satellite is sending telemetry and that onboard systems are in good health. Angosat-1 launched Dec. 26 on a Zenit-3SLBF rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Energia reported the following day that Angosat-1 had stopped sending vital data to ground teams. Angosat-1 is the first satellite for Angola, designed for television…

GLASSBORO, New Jersey — RSC Energia of Moscow said Dec. 27 that the satellite it built for Angola has stopped sending telemetry data after separating from the rocket upper stage that took it to geostationary transfer orbit. In a Russian-language press release on the company website, Energia said the Angosat-1 telecommunications satellite initially established contact, but then ceased to continue communicating with ground teams. Angosat-1 launched Dec. 26 on a roughly nine-hour Zenit mission from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The satellite was on the way to its 13 degrees…

MT LAUREL, New Jersey — A Zenit rocket, flying for the first time in two years, successfully orbited Angola’s debut satellite Angosat-1 on Dec. 26. The land-launched Zenit lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 2:00 p.m. Eastern on a nearly nine-hour mission to deliver the 1,647-kilogram satellite to geostationary transfer orbit. Russian state corporation Roscosmos confirmed spacecraft separation from the rocket’s Fregat upper stage at 10:54 p.m. Eastern. The Angosat mission is a first for both Angola, the oil-rich African country that gained its first new president…